Meet the TA: Jake Deppen

Profile picture of Jake in a Spanish cafe

Enjoying a traditional Mallorcan breakfast of ensaïmada and café con leche.

Originally posted April, 2015; Updated January, 2017

I am a PhD student in the UW Archaeology program and the Teaching Assistant for this year’s Historical Archaeology class. I was previously the TA for this course during Spring 2015 and am looking forward to doing it again.

I received my BA in Anthropology from The Ohio State University and an MA in Anthropology from UW. My PhD research is a study of ceramics from the Late Iron Age in Mallorca, Spain, a time when indigenous Mallorcans were increasingly connected with outsiders like Phoenicians and Romans. I am particularly interested in the dynamics of these cultural interactions. My research is a small part of a larger collaboration between UW archaeologists and archaeologists in Spain which we have dubbed the Landscape, Encounters, and Identity Archaeology (LEIA) Project.

Before beginning my work in Spain, I worked on a number of projects and sites in southwest and central Ohio, mostly focused on what archaeologists call the Fort Ancient culture. If you ever find yourself in southwest Ohio, the museum and reconstructed village at SunWatch Indian Village and Archaeological Park make it worth a stop.

Outside of Denny Hall, I am the proud dad to Nikhil. Objectively speaking, he is the best baby in the world.

Jake and his son Nikhil

About Beatrice

From rugged beginnings navigating the Midwestern soup my parents elected to raise me in (soup ingredients including: Michigan, Iowa, and Minnesota), to the rainy,

Processed with VSCO with c1 presetPatagonia-clad city of Seattle in which I now attend the University of Washington, one thing has remained unchanged- my love of finding dead things. I give credit mostly to the entertainment options, or lack there of, in Iowa. After all, scrutinizing my backyard for animal bones and turtle shells was more fun than trying to roll hay bails.

Once I started my undergraduate journey at UW, blindly sampling classes, I found myself in an Introduction to Archaeology class. This was the first time it dawned on me that my mildly creepy hobby could be a more than just a reason to keep my eyes glued to the ground on nature hikes. After this realization, I jetted off to Mallorca, Spain to participate in the Landscape, Encounters, and Identity Archaeology Project (LEIAP), which was equal parts excavation and survey. Upon my return to Seattle, I experienced archaeology withdrawals, so as any couple recovering from an untimely end would do, we got back together. I am now designing an exploratory research project involving macroscopic analysis of the handmade pottery sherds collected during survey.

When I’m not interrogating nature for dead things to admire, I enjoy equally wild activities like knitting, online shopping, and FaceTiming my pug, Franklin.  img_9641